Wednesday, July 1, 2009

waze announces public beta for Android users

PALO ALTO, USA: waze Inc., the first free provider of driver-generated maps and real-time road information, announced the public beta of its mobile application for Android users, who are invited to download the application at the Android market.

Through a community-based approach, waze harnesses driver-generated data to build navigable road maps and provide real-time information to commuters on the most optimal route to their destination as well as the latest road conditions, traffic updates, street closures, speed traps and more. The application first opened as a private alpha in San Francisco, and is now available nationwide to all with an Android phone.

“The Android community was the first to receive access to waze alpha in the US. These users are forming the core of our community, and we now look forward to welcoming even more Android users into waze’s network of drivers, nationally,” said Noam Bardin, CEO.

“By building a community of drivers on the road, we are able to provide the real-time road intelligence that helps commuters answer the every-day question, ‘Which way should I go today?’ We are excited to open our doors to all Android users and invite them into our community of drivers.”

As the waze application runs on a user’s smartphone, it automatically and anonymously sends back GPS points as they drive. This data is used to build and constantly update the road grid, driving directions, road changes, traffic flow, and more. waze also uses aggregated driving speed data to determine traffic jams and other changes in road conditions.

All of this information is collected passively, but drivers can also take a more active role, reporting road problems and map inaccuracies easily from their mobile device; more extensive map editing is done via the waze website. The waze map platform is soon to open APIs to allow developers to build other features and applications that leverage the waze-generated collection of live map data.

waze will soon announce availability of the application on additional mobile platforms.